replay, repeat and rewind
by holographic
Summary: It shatters and rains down thousands of shards, crystalline and sharp. He doesn't have a stable footing anymore, but he still smiles and keeps cool.  / byakuran-centric, oneshot.


**replay, repeat and rewind.**

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In this world, he can see everything. It all moves in a timeline, but they are all different. Millions of branches can spring up from a decision made by someone he doesn't even know—and he has to see all of them. He knows all of them.

Everything plays over and over, mistakes and choices and indecision, for him to see from his unseen throne, a ruler no one knows yet.

(_replay—_)

It's not a power he had ever asked for. Not even one he had ever thought to want, or even knew to think of. He had never wanted to know everything—every parallel universe, every existence of "himself"… it was all etched into an ever-growing glass plate, see-through and confusing, echoing.

It shatters (_he shatters_) and rains down thousands of shards, crystalline and sharp. He doesn't have a stable footing anymore (if anything, he's falling), but he still smiles and keeps cool. He's long since figured out how to bullshit everything he does and how to fake out everyone he knows. It just requires that unnerving smile (because he _knows_ what his smile looks like now—he's practiced it too many times in the mirror not to—), and a bag of marshmallows, that's all.

Not even Shouichi can see through him. For all the games they've played and times they've laughed and fallen asleep over a game of Choice on Shouichi's rickety old table, Shouichi still can't see anything about him. He's made of glass, but for some reason, to Shouichi, he's fogged up like someone's come close enough to breathe on his skin (—which, may not be a total lie. He has "lovers", so to speak, although he goes through women like meals).

Shouichi comments once that it _doesn't seem like you particularly enjoy anything anymore_, to which he smiles and laughs, says, _maybe you're right, Sho-chan_.

Then he makes his move, starts a family and pulls Shouichi in with him—or, rather, lets Shouichi pretend to be pulled in, lets him act like he's part of this, lets Shouichi try to fool him. It's almost cute to see the man actually believe he has him fooled. (Almost amusing.)

It's like when Mukuro tried to fool him, like when Uni pretended she could fight him, resist him. But only amusing because he's seen them do it before, seen them try to betray and deceive and lie to him.

(_repeat—_)

It's funny to watch how so many people react the same, how they follow themselves over and over. He smiles and pops another cookie in his mouth, munching with his feet up on the table as he watches Uni watch him watching her.

Her face is pretty, with childish lips and wide, blue eyes, black hair framing her cute cheeks and a funny little tattoo. She's set it in marble (as if it would help), and looks at him looking at her like she knows (which is hilarious. She thinks she _knows_. She thought she knew in over three thousand of the other timelines, as well. He giggles).

He knows how this will play out. Or, at least, he _thought_ he knew. For once, he something new happened. A sort of thrill went through him when he saw Tsunayoshi and his guardians show up in this timeline, saw everything move accordingly. He _didn't know what would happen._ It made him laugh; he was excited enough to give them leniency, to let them do what they wanted while he watched.

But then he died.

It was so sudden, the rage and the heat, the melting point. Byakuran can remember his eyes widening, the way his flesh faded into the flames, the pain, but then he remembers nothing. He can see the nothing in front of him, realizes this is why Uni must have paused before the sacrifice.

It's funny, he muses as he floats, that the only thing he couldn't see would be what would kill him. But then, perhaps that was the point. This may just be a cruel sort of lesson, teaching him that his power isn't meant for a mortal.

(But then, that's why he wanted to destroy everything. He had craved that almost unattainable power, the one that would silence everything, allow him not to see.)

So Tsunayoshi-kun and the rest get to go home. It's a happy ending with the required sacrifices, Uni and her guardian angel—which he calls Gamma with an amused little snort—and perhaps others, but they're going back to the past where they belong and will go forward to a future not so dark. It's all right in the world, and he no longer exists.

He supposes this would be the afterlife, then. Or, at least, this would be the afterlife for a person like him. Nothing as far as the eye (can't) see, stretching for who knew how long.

Sho-chan is probably celebrating. Tsunayoshi-kun is probably sleeping (not even phased by his first kill, he notes with a shake of his head and a chuckle, _what a good little mafia boss he's going to be_), and the arcobaleno Reborn is probably writing to the ninth. The other guardians and friends are doing he-doesn't-care what, so he doesn't bother to think of it.

Byakuran lounges with his arms behind his head in the black and wonders where he's drifting to, and finds an odd comfort in the fact that he can't see anything at all.

(_rewind._)

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_**I hate Byakuran. **__I swear I do. -sob- But, idk, the inspiration bug just hit me, and… and so this came along. It's really probably not very good, but I hope I could … at least… do him justice without making him totally … uhhh … a dick? I guess?_

_I hope so. But anyways._

_I just wanted to explore the whole "he can see everything" aspect of him, 'cause that could possibly make a pretty interesting character, past all the "OMG HE'S LIKE GOD, NO HE SUCKS NOW" stuff I've seen. That… probably didn't come through as much as I would have liked (how much it's kind of a strain and is making him the way he is), but I hope someone caught that._

_Not much to say; I wrote most of it a few weeks ago and finally just decided to finish it and power through. Yeah._

_I'd really love feedback on this piece; I'm feeling quite insecure right now. Hahah. _

**much love,**

**manrii.**


End file.
